Danny Bateman

It had to be hard for Hawkins to be the drummer in the band when the front man is known as one of the better drummers in the world. Dave Grohl recorded the first Foo Fighters album all by himself, with him recording all the instruments and vocal.

Then Grohl filled out the band when the album took off and he wanted to tour behind it. According to Grohl, Hawkins was a much better technical drummer than Grohl ever was, and that's what made Hawkins such a perfect fit with Foo Fighters. 

@ColoradoHusk The other tough part about this is they seemed genuinely extremely close, in a way that perhaps Dave is not with other members of the band. Of course that's just what we can see from our outside perspective, but they seemed to be kindred spirits from all available evidence. From what I've gathered a LOT closer than Dave was to Cobain, who apparently was a bit of a d!(k to Dave toward the end. 

Plus Kurt had had several ODs the band knew about, which probably led to a bit of an air of inevitability about his ultimate passing. Obviously not the way anyone anticipated it but perhaps it was more anticipated. I did not learn until yesterday Hawkins had himself OD'd in his younger days and been in a coma for ~2 weeks before pulling through. Apparently Grohl didn't really leave his bedside much if at all during that... a bit of a reflection of their relationship. And Hawkins seemed to be doing a lot better dancing with his demons of late and been able to stay sober since then.

Addicition is a real evil b!^@h.

And obviously you feel for Hawkins' family first and foremost, but I wouldn't be surprised if this loss hit Dave a bit differently (more deeply) than some of the other band members.

What a loss.

@Danny Batemangreat comments about Dave and Taylor. I think they had a very close relationship. 
 

It might be a good time to re-watch the Foo Fighters documentary which was done a few years ago.